I watched the entire debate and mostly yawned. McCain seemed tired and deflated, his loud breathing sounding like air coming out of a collapsing balloon. Obama was decidedly cool, but very confident.

I was disappointed when he failed to jump on McCain for the Adler Planetarium smear. McCain had previously been making silly remarks about a $3 million grizzly bear DNA project. It turned out that McCain not only never opposed it, but also actually voted for it. They had to find something that would sound equally ridiculous, and they jumped at the first item on Obama’s earmarks page, because it was the only one that could be made to sound absurd. The rest are impeccably correct. I urge you to go to the link below and see for yourself what they say about Barack Obama’s values. Read more »

Todd & Sarah Palin: secessionist Alaska Independence Party
Well worth watching for her outfit alone. My eyes! The goggles they do nothing!

Sarah Palin: Palling Around With Secessionists
Why, of course! Just infiltrate the Republican Party!

They seem convincing to me, but I don’t have time to go down all the labyrinthine corridors of Palinology. Her supporters are yelling smear. Help me out here.

Sarah Palin and Intermittent Gunderson Syndrome
So is it true that the winkin’ and flirtin’ act and Fargo accent are some kind of dialect joke she runs when necessary? It’s said that they weren’t featured in her Alaska debates.

You don’t know the real Sarah Palin… yet.

Unleashed, Palin Makes a Pit Bull Look Tame by Dana Milbank

In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.” At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy.”

The website’s most notorious feature is a 13 minute documentary (below), which explains John McCain’s dealings with Charles Keating, the fraudulent chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was bailed out for 3.4 billion in the early nineties. KeatingEconomics.com. It also includes PDF files and a detailed exposé of McCain’s dealings with Keating.

A rather well-researched article from a rather unknown magazine on the perils and successes of Amtrak in the States: http://americancity.org/magazine/article/a-new-era-for-train-travel/

My favorite quote
“No national rail system in the world is profitable, and all receive government subsidies.”

I would love to witness the opponents to refunding Amtrak in Congress scratching their heads and wondering why, if the trains aren’t making a profit, they are still being funded.

More importantly, this perverse reversion to previous modus operandi is really starting to irritate me. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, just an upsetting one, or at the least, annoying. This country has hundreds of thousands of miles of train tracks, and they abolished them in favor of the almighty gas engine. Now, with the price of oil rising, and a sudden concern for the environment, they’ve decided to replace tracks they tore down nearly thirty years ago. Couple this with the New York Times article on reviving streetcars and you’ve got to be wondering whether it’s human behavior that constantly tends towards destruction and revision, or just an American one.

The general opinion seems to be that Obama came out ahead, but it should be noted that Bush did not do well in the debates, yet won two elections. After the polls, you’ll find some comments from Fox New Forum pundits, who seem mostly rather wan, a bad sign for McCain, one would think.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks – many calling them “lazy,” “violent” or responsible for their own troubles.

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“The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state.”

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Too bad the author didn’t sign this. It showed up in a Fark.com discussion.

They can’t run against Washington because they are Washington, so they have to run a nitwit from Alaska and run against the media. I especially loved Michelle Malkin’s tantrum. Malkin blames it on Gibson, who was just so darned unfair and mean.

General verdict: moose in headlights drops a steaming load.

If McCain were winning, you would be all for him. You know he’s not doing well, so you’re saying “Both sides suck!” so you don’t have ownership of a lemon. Read more »

Scarborough is the slipperiest guy on TV, and one of the most disingenuous.

He’s not horrible to watch until he starts in with the political analysis, where he switches into “take whatever position keeps my opponent most off-balance, even if I have to lie” mode. Read more »

At least Bill Clinton was young and handsome.

Dennis Kucinich Speaks to the DNC (YouTube Video)

Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) may have not gathered the crowds that Teddy Kennedy or Michelle Obama did just a day ago, but he delivered by far the most exciting and exuberant speech of the convention so far. It was a one man stand-up political routine with arms flailing to the roaring cheers of those present. We can only hope the mainstream media will at least mention the sheer emotion and the reaction from the crowd, whose jaded mugs quickly turn to smiling, cheering faces, ready to dance on-stage.

Full excerpt can be found here Dennis Kucinich, (OH-10).